It is extremely important that high levels of vitamin D be maintained. The chances of severe or fatal COVID-19 illness plummet for those with adequate vitamin D levels.

Vitamin D is the closest thing we have to a cure right not—provided you take it in advance. The results so far on this are astounding.

This post addresses the outcomes of people with varying levels of vitamin D who contracted COVID-19 and ended up in a hospital.

There is amazing data from a relatively small but rather tidy study, which can be found here. Ignore their statistical analysis; it only obscures the result. Look instead at the raw data—replicated below.

The bottom line is this: 95% of the people who had Severe or Critical COVID cases had low levels of vitamin D. Very few people with “Normal” levels had such cases.

Specifically the study looked at 212 COVID-19 patients in three Asian hospitals. There were roughly equal amounts of four outcomes: Mild, Ordinary, Severe and Critical.

They also categorized vitamin D levels as Normal, Insufficient, and Deficient.

Normal was >30 ng/ml. Insufficient 21-29 and Deficient <20. Ng/ml is the usual unit reported in the U.S. If you have results in mmol/L, multiply that number by 0.4 to get ng/ml.

Now 30 ng/ml might be “normal” for these folk, but Dr. Mike wants it a lot higher—above 40, above 50. More on that later.

So how did these COVID-19 patients fare? The result is nothing short of amazing. Those with Normal vitamin D levels had about 4% of the Severe cases. The two groups below normal levels had 96% of those cases. The same was true for the Critical cases. In fact, 85% of the Normal vitamin D people had only the Mild case.

 

Assuming there were no shenanigans with picking the data, this is a HUGE result. It’s only 212 people, but remember, the sample size needed to establish a strong result is small. If a biased coin lands tails every time you flip it, you will conclude that result with certainty after only a couple of dozen flips. However, it the biased coin lands on tails 52% of the time, you will need a huge number of flips to firmly establish that. (Efficacy of statins and whole grains are good examples of the latter case.)

 

The best part is that we can get to these higher protective levels risk free and almost cost free: $30/year. This is not the way the world usually works, particularly in the area of medicine.

 

Anyone can easily get their vitamin level up into the 40s and 50s. The best way is to get some sun, and it doesn’t take huge amounts. But for those that aren’t able to scamper around in bathing suits, there are pills.

 

Dr. Mike recommends either 20,000 IU once a week or 5000 IU/day. Most get the best results with the once-a-week method. The daily method works best for me.

 

This may sound like a lot of vitamin D, but bear in mind that a fair-skinned sunbather can expect to manufacture 50,000 IU in an hour of summer sun. The darker your skin, the longer it will take.

 

You can readily find 5000 IU vitamin D pills. Get those. People will get worried if they see you toss down twenty 1000 IU pills. Nothing wrong with it, but it raises eyebrows.

 

I researched brands for purity a few years ago and the Carlson brand was the winner. This may or may not still be true. Please let us know of any results of your own purity research. Be sure you get D3. Almost all of it is D3.

 

And tell anybody in harms way, which, for the foreseeable future, is 99% of us.